Guard Duty
by Ghostpaw
Summary: LupinxTonks. Lupin is partnered with Tonks on her first Guard Duty in the Department of Mysteries. It should be a routine mission. Is it heck.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: LupinxTonks. Lupin is partnered with Tonks on her first Guard Duty at the Department of Mysteries.

Author's Notes: This is part of a longer story arc spanning from just before the start of OotP until just past the end of HBP. For more information and past and future episodes, see my profile.

Disclaimer: All these characters and settings belong to JKR, Bloomsbury et al etc. I'm just playing.

**Guard Duty**

"Tea."

Tonks plonked the mug down on the library desk in front of Lupin.

"I even managed not to spill any on the way up." she grinned.

Lupin snorted with laughter. The last three weeks of working with the young Auror had, as he suspected, been interesting. She was a nice enough girl, clever and sunny and enthusiastic with a wicked sense of humour, but how she ever became an Auror was beyond him. 'Pinball woman', Charlie called her, forever walking into things and tripping over things. Stealth and concealment could hardly have been her strong points. Neither, it would seem, was tact nor subtlety, her conversation liberally peppered with random observations and innuendo, and one foot permanently in her mouth.

"Shouldn't you be off home soon?" he asked "The meeting finished almost an hour ago and it's getting late."

"Yeah, I will," she said, flopping into the battered settee opposite him "when I've drunk this tea and regained the willpower to move."

She winced and kneaded her thigh, flexing the leg.

"Hurt your leg?" he asked.

"Nah, it's nothing, just girl stuff. For reasons inexplicable I get really stiff joints when I'm hormonal."

"Oh dear, I thought you weren't your usual ebullient self earlier". He paused with a thoughtful look on his face. "Hang on," he said "I know what might help", and vanished from the room.

Tonks couldn't help but feel amused when she realised this was not the reaction she had expected from him. What she had expected was a mildly disgusted too-much-information face when she said the word 'hormonal', and for him to go back to whatever he was writing. He seemed a nice enough bloke, sweet and shy and self-depreciating, but kind of up-tight, old fashioned and overly serious. Certainly not what she'd expected of an ex-Marauder anyway.

When he returned he handed her a small brown-glass jar of ointment.

"Knitbone. It's for sprains and things really, but it's rather effective on achy joints in general."

"You're being remarkably understanding about this, the boys usually just go 'ewww' and run away at the mention of girly stuff unless they can blame my bad mood on it."

"Well, if anyone's going to understand being sore and grumpy one week in four…"

Tonks looked away, embarrassed.

"Sorry, I forgot about that."

"Glad someone can."

"You're hardly what you'd call your typical werewolf," she answered defensively "I mean, from the lectures we had as trainees, when Bill and Kingsley said about your condition I was expected someone hairy-scary and feral, bites the heads off bunnies and eyebrows meet in the middle. Like that Greyback bloke. Not a mild-mannered professor who's more civilised than the guys you live with."

"I see the training received by Aurors is as accurate and unbiased as ever." Remus mused bitterly.

An awkward silence fell between them. Tonks fiddled with the pot of ointment.

"So are you actually living here?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied "funds are a little tight at the moment, thanks to Umbridge and her oh so helpful Employment of Dark Creatures Bill, so the offer of somewhere to stay rent-free was most appealing. And anyway, someone has to keep the Incredible Sulk company."

He smiled with a sort of tired affection and nodded in the general direction of Sirius' room. Tonks sighed. Sirius had stormed out of the earlier meeting in an almighty strop when Dumbledore had once again turned down his request to visit Harry.

"Will he be ok?" said Tonks with concern "I mean, I know it must be horribly frustrating for him, not being able to see Harry, but he did sort of blow it out of all proportion."

"Such is Sirius." sighed Lupin "He'll have forgotten all about it by the morning. He's always been … changeable." Concern furrowed Lupin's brow for a moment, and Tonks wondered just how much Sirius had changed.

Not that she had long to wonder, because at that moment the library door swung open and Alastor Moody stumped in.

"Tonks! Are you busy?" he demanded

"Um, not really"

"Excellent! I've got a job for you. Bill Weasley has just cried off guard duty, something about a chance of a lifetime and someone called Delcott."

"The big tart!" laughed Tonks.

"So, we'll need someone to replace him and it would make sense to get you doing something useful."

Tonks perked up instantly.

"Wicked! I'll go get my cloak, I assume you want me to go straight away. Level Nine, isn't it?"

"I'm not done yet." interrupted Moody gruffly "As you've not done guard duty before, Lupin here will be going with you to keep an eye on you…"

"Oh come off it!" she interrupted "I mean, I'm pretty sure I know my way around the Ministry, I only work there and everything. And, y'know, I can see why it would make sense to send the civilian members of Order in pairs, but I am an Auror, you trained me for pity's sake, so it's not like I can't look after myself…"

"Nymphadora Tonks! For once in your life will you shut up and listen girl!" Moody was intimidating enough at the best of times, positively terrifying when he chose to be, and Tonks fell silent. "This has nothing to do with your ability - although I might point out that you are barely a year out of training and _twenty-two_ - this is standard practice. Everyone is paired up with a more experienced member on their first guard duty, and you are no exception. Have you actually ever been down to the ninth floor, may I ask? Do you actually know what's down there?"

Tonks shook her head.

"Alastor has a point, Nymphadora," Lupin cut in (Tonks scowled at him) "guard duty isn't as simple as it sounds, having someone to look out for you to begin with would be advisable. That said, Alastor, isn't there someone else who can do it? I've still got to finish putting tonight's minutes into coherent sentences, and Sirius unearthed a book on Dementor life-cycles earlier that I'd like to have a look at."

"Don't argue with me Lupin." said Moody with a tone of finality, and stumped back out of the room.

Lupin looked over at Tonks, who was now wearing a sullen expression that was unsettlingly reminiscent of Sirius when he got in one of his moods.

"I still don't see why I need a baby sitter" she huffed.

Lupin sighed. It was going to be a long night.


	2. Chapter 2

At the end of the long, gloomy corridor, it's walls painted the same sombre grey as the slate floor, two figures sit in near darkness before a door that, devoid of any semblance of a handle, blends almost seamlessly with the featureless walls. Not that the casual observer would notice them, of course.

Cramped under the invisibility cloak, Tonks found herself absently studying her companion. She couldn't decide whether that moustache was silly or not.

"Nyphadora Tonks will you _please_ stop staring at me." hissed Lupin.

The sudden breaking of the silence made her jump.

"Sorry," she grinned apologetically "I was bored."

Merlin's Beard was she bored. It had been exciting at first, sneaking into the Ministry and poking around in Department of Mysteries. She'd even admit that without Lupin's help she probably couldn't have got around the charms that secured level 9 nor figured out how to navigate it (although the route they'd taken into the Ministry itself was the same one she used to sneak in late and hung over a few times). But since then it had been tedium all the way, the occasional round of the Time Room, but mostly sitting and waiting. It bothered here that there were all these doors to explore, but Lupin was adamant she was to leave them alone, as they were 'nothing to do with us' and thus 'non of our business'. Which was a rubbish reason, in her mind.

"I'm not exactly having the time of my life either, Nymphadora." he whispered back.

No, he thought, guard duty was generally a lot less of a hassle without someone fidgeting incessantly and staring at you like you'd grown a spare head.

"Will you stop calling me that, for the umpteenth time. You make me sound like I'm bloody eight. I'm fed up with people talking down to me all the time."

"Well stop acting like it then."

"You know, you'd do a lot better at guarding if you weren't bickering." came a voice from the shadows. "Boo." Shacklebolt emerged from under an invisibility cloak.

"Is it two o'clock already?" said Lupin "Come on, Tonks, time to go home." ("Doesn't time fly when you having fun" grumbled Tonks)

Lupin glanced up and down the corridor, then unfolded to his feet and offered Tonks a hand, which she studiously ignored. A tangle of limbs later, she was no further from the floor than before and grudgingly accepted the hand up.

-x-

There was something particularly eerie about public buildings when they were deserted, Lupin found himself thinking, something inexplicably sinister about schools, hospitals, shopping centres after dark, like the absence of the usual hustle bustle left a shadow. The Ministry was particularly bad, the magic windows turned off for the night left gawping sockets of inky black. He shook his head and smiled to himself. This is where a penchant for silly Muggle ghost-stories got you – paranoia.

"Ouch!"

He jumped involuntarily at his colleague's outburst, and the invisibility cloak fluttered to the ground.

"Jesus Tonk, what happened?"

"Eh, nothing, wall bit me, sorry."

"_Bit_ you?"

"You may have noticed that inanimate objects take a dislike to me," she said, gesturing to the corner of wall they had just rounded "that troll's foot umbrella stand in your hallway has it in for me in particular and …"

She fell quiet all of a sudden, a distracted look on her face.

"And?"

"Shush" her voice a whisper now, she patted the air gesturing him to remain silent "I though I heard something."

The silence felt thicker now they both strained to catch a second suggestion of intrusion. Then, there, from where they had just come a door creaked, and footfalls.

_That way. _mouthed Tonks.

Lupin went to throw the invisibility cloak over him, but Tonks shook her head.

_Slow us down_ she unsheathed her wand _Come on _and took off (remarkably quietly) down the corridor.

-x-

Backs to the wall they moved like ghosts through the deserted corridors of the Ministry. From the gradually less cautious sound of feet and the muffled whispers, their quarry was aware of them, and panicked. Lupin was keenly aware that a frightened enemy was considerably more of a risk and less predictable than a confident one. Now danger really did lurk around every dark doorway and blind corner. He should make them stop, call for back up, Kingsley was only a couple of floors down, they didn't know how many intruders they were pursuing. He was putting Tonks in undue risk, their only goal was to keep the Death Eaters away from the Hall of Prophecy, and they were heading away from it, they didn't need to intercept anyone. But despite himself, the thrill of the chase urged him on, let him follow his pink-haired companion closer to their prey.

Ahead of them, the corridor of offices opened onto small reception area. The lift was in front of them, the an office and another corridor to the right, two more corridors to the left, and no sign of Death Eaters save for a rough grey cloak discarded in the middle of the floor. Lupin and Tonks looked at each other, then back at the cloak. It was, after all, possible evidences as to who they were chasing. Other than themselves, there was no sign of life. Cautiously, Lupin moved towards the grey cloth, Tonks following. He crouched down on his haunches to get a better look, poking cautiously in with his wand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tonks slouch dramatically against the wall next to the far left corridor. Boring her already, he mused.

"Av…!"  
No sooner had the syllable been uttered than Tonks grabbed the arm that had just appeared from the corridor beside her and flipped it's owner off his feet and onto his back.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Lupin immobilised him as he hit the floor. He pulled back their captive's dark mask; terrified eyes looked back at him. The lad was unfamiliar and scarcely out of his teens, the poor, stupid bugger.

"Remus look out!"

Lupin dropped as a bolt of red narrowly missed him, two more dark figures racing away down the far left corridor.

"Shit! There's three of them! We have to call for back up."

"Forget it" said Tonks "there's no time. Plus with all this magic fire the Aurors on-call will have been alerted, we need to get out of here too. Hopefully Kingsley can pick up that little fuckwit."

She stepped towards the lift. "They'll be heading for the fire escape stairs."

"They wouldn't go out that way, the fire escapes are alarmed too."

"No, but if they go for level four there's the utterly pointless ground-level Centaur entrance that is completely unused and unguarded"

She pointed her wand at the lift controls.

"Override code Prairy Oyster" she said, and the lift doors slid open "Gets around all the locks and user logs and whatnot. Secret passed from one trainee to the next for emergency hangover exits."

She pulled him into the lift.

"I'm surprised that one still works." said Lupin, Tonks raised a quizzical eyebrow "It was one of Jim's … Oh never mind."

The lift door opened onto the fourth floor main corridor, they tumbled out and raced towards the Centaur Liaison offices. As they neared them, there was the sound of a heavy door slamming. Around the corner, a long ramp tapered towards a large double door. They ran towards it and…

"Bugger, locked!" snarled Tonks as she collided with it.

Lupin stepped back, gesturing her to do the same.

"Alohamora!"  
There was a loud pop as the charms holding the door gave way. Lupin went to open the door, but Tonks pushed past him.

"Ladies first." she said with a wink, and he couldn't help but smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Tonks fell through the door, wand at the ready, into the deserted street. Rows of decrepit garages lined a cobbled alley lit by a single, rather pathetic lamppost. The two Death Eaters they had been pursuing had vanished. She swore under her breath; they'd almost had them. As she stepped out into the alley she shivered. Something felt _wrong_. There was an ugly chill to the air, like fog, although the sky was clear. Even for the small hours of the morning, it was too cold for late July. She turned to Lupin, who lingered by the doorway through which they'd just come.  
"We've lost them." she sighed.  
He stepped out to join her.  
"Hang on a minute…" then he fell silent, face raised to the night air, like he was trying to listen, or was it something else. Tonks wondered for a moment if werewolves could track scents, or if that was just mythology. "This way", and he started off towards the darker end of the alley.  
"How do you know?" Tonks demanded.  
"I've just got a feeling. Not a good feeling, mind."  
Lupin, Mr Rational, acting on a hunch? Tonks was surprised, but under circumstances it was the best lead they had, so she supposed she would have to go along with it.

At the end of the alley there was a sharp turn into a driveway that lead towards the main street. As they rounded the corner, the sight that met them froze Tonks to the spot. Prostate on the ground lay a fallen Death Eater, the mask pulled back from his bearded face, frozen in horror. Over him hovered a mass of black, a humanoid form in a cloak of ragged, pitchy gauze that twisted in some unfelt wind. The creature's hooded head was transfixed above the fallen man's open mouth, from which a small but infinitely bright ball of light painfully slowly drifted upwards. Then Tonks did something she never thought she would ever do on duty. She screamed.

The scream split the night, breaking the creature's rapture. It raised itself, turned, and faced them, extending a hand, grey and rotten looking.  
"Run!"  
Lupin had grabbed her arm and was dragging her away from the scene, back down the alleyway. Tonks ran. She didn't know where, just that she had to get away from that _thing_, she blindly followed Lupin. A brickwork maze of dark back alleys, passageways and footpaths unfolded around her, the air unnaturally thick in her lungs. They vaulted a low wall, and crouched behind it.

"Tonks. Nymphadora. Look at me." Her eyes met Lupin's. He was breathing hard, his face bloodless. "This may sound counter-intuitive, but you have to calm down. Those things feed on emotion, the more scared we are, the easier we are for it to track. Moreover," he swallowed and glanced over his shoulder, "we're not going to outrun it. We need to apparate away from here, and we can't do that if we're panicking. So, deep breaths…" he held her gaze. "Ready?" She nodded, and they got to their feet. Too late, the creature was already upon them. It floated above the wall like some vile bird of prey. Tonks suddenly felt so lonely, so small, every mistake, every inadvertantly hurtful word she'd ever said twisting up her insides and draining the blood from her head. At her side, she heard Lupin murmur something, but the words didn't register. A graceful silvery form flew from his wand towards their assailant. And then, for the second time that night, Nymphadora Tonks did something she never thought she would ever do on duty. She fainted.


	4. Chapter 4

Tonks came too on the moth eaten settee in the library of 12 Grimauld Place, Lupin sat on the floor beside her.  
"Oh gods, how long have I been out? And how did I get here?" she groaned.  
"Not long, about 20 minutes, and side-along apparition. Now, here, eat this." He handed her a large chunk of chocolate. "Personally, I think it's a pretty good cure for everything, but it's particularly effective against Dementor attacks."  
"Dementors? Hang on, aren't they nominally on our side? Why did they go after us?" said Tonks, biting into the chocolate.  
"A lot of things are _nominally_ on our side, and I don't believe they were ever on anyone's side but their own." There was a weariness to Lupin's tone "But yes, this is a … worrying new development. They were until recently more-or-less under the Ministry's control, confined to Azkaban. But I suppose with Voldemort active there's less incentive for them to play by the Ministry's rules anymore…" he trailed off, side-tracked in thought.

"I suppose you must think I'm a complete wimp now."  
"Pardon?" said Lupin, snapping back to the conversation.  
"I mean, fainting like that" continued Tonks "it's pretty poor for a trained Auror, screaming like a girlie and passing out."  
"You've never come up against a Dementor before, have you?"  
She shook her head, they'd always been taught that Dementors were not their problem.  
"They're _nasty_ buggers," he said "their whole being is designed to induce negative emotions – despair, fear, anger – so they can feed. It's easy to get panicked, for any common sense let alone training to go straight out your head. So, given you've no prior experience with them, and you weren't expecting it, _and_ you weren't feeling your best tonight in the first place, I think you did exceptionally well."  
"You reckon?"  
"I do."  
The clock on the library mantelpiece struck four.  
"God, it's late, I should be getting home." yawned Tonks, clambering off the settee. She wobbled somewhat as she stood, and Lupin jumped up to support her.  
"I'm not sure you going anywhere is a good idea" he said "you've had a bad shock and it is very late. Or very early, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, this place has a silly number of spare rooms, we can make you up a bed here. I just think it would be safer."  
"Yeah, but if I'm not home in the morning the others will worry. And what about work?"  
"I need to get word to Kingsley about that poor sod in the alleyway, so I'll tell him where you are. As for work, we've got a system for people who've had a bad night on watch. Basically, Moody goes and intimidates whoever you report too until they believe you've got a good reason."  
Tonks laughed. Right now though, all she wanted to do was sleep, and the thought of trying to Floo anywhere, let alone try and apparate was too much.  
"All right. Works for me."


End file.
